Page 148 - Arabiab Studies (IV)

138 Arabian Studies IV
makes about $75,000 a year from the slave trade and $180,000
from Customs duties which arc farmed to a Banyan. He
maintains about 2,000 foreign soldiers and has 1,000 Arabs
and slaves. In war he could raise 15-20,000 infantry and 1,000
cavalry. He has recently imported some pistols from Bombay
for his cavalry but most troops have a long lance and sabre
and a shield of whale-skin so strong it can turn away a
cannonball. However,, the Omanis are an ‘abject and
dastardly race’ who do not enjoy fighting but run away saying
‘dates are sweet and life is dear’. The Sayyid is building a
handsome palace in European style, and a thin wall round the
town and has arranged for a canal to bring the best water
from Sarcar to the beach. Muscat has only two small, mean
mosques. At Felc Syed Mamet iben Calfan has a beautiful
castellated house. Maurizi gives a map and shows part of a
20-mile-long wall which ran from Muttra to Sedab. There was
general security and when visiting prisons, Maurizi never
found more than seven inmates. He returned in 1814.
1811 MARTYN, Rev. Henry, Journals and Letters, London, 1837,
349-54. Visited in April. The town and houses arc more mean
and filthy than anything seen in India, in the bazaar there is
nothing but what is Indian or worse and there are three trees.
1814 BLAKENEY, Richard, Journal of an Oriental Voyage,
London, 1841, 199-203 and picture. The forts are in a ruinous
state. The cattle are fed on fish, mixed with dates, water and a
soft kind of earth. In Muttrah there is a cascade with scalding
water in which there are huge numbers of prettily-spotted
small fish which the natives believe it will cause death to
catch. A sailing boat upset and the Royal Navy rescued 32
passengers but eight of them who were women were put to
death for being seen by Christians.
1816 REES, Sjt. Thomas R. M., A Journal of Voyages and Travel,
London, 1822, 69 and passim. While on naval duty he visited
Muscat several times as ships loaded water and bullocks
there. Hot and unhealthy.
HEUDE, Lieut. William, A Voyage up the Persian Gulf,
London, 1819, 20-34. Visited in November for six days. He
put the population at 30,000 plus 10,000 at Muttrah and 7,000
in the neighbouring villages. The forts are ‘certainly beneath
•! the notice of a regular attack’ and the artillery is unser­
viceable. The town is ‘somewhat mean’ in appearance but the
!. bazaars ‘supply everything in absolute profusion’. He had
great praise for the local pomegranates. The exports are
7/8,000 bags of coffee, brimstone, ruinos and a few horses
and camels. There are slave sales three times a week and he
saw 20 or 30 Africans brought from Zanzibar. He was offered
a boy for $40. Some African women had their teeth filed to a
point and the Arabs rejected them as potential cannibals. The